If you're among the many who have complained about Volkswagen's recent car interior choices, fret not: the German automaker wants to do better - and fast.
In an interview with Autocar at the pre-production launch of the all-new Tiguan, VW CEO Thomas Schäfer admitted some of its recent design choices irked consumers. To be more specific, the haptic-touch steering wheel controls and climate control sliders that don't light up have been under fire.
But those are going away now, beginning with the next-generation Tiguan, followed by the all-new Passat and revised Golf. Schäfer says these oddities, which, to be fair, happened under his predecessor, "definitely did a lot of damage."
To remedy this, Schäfer assigned a large team to keep score of everything a car owner touches inside an automobile and rank them according to necessity.
The resulting spreadsheet was reportedly so big it could fill a room. Then, when the team cracks a combination that makes sense, Schäfer has a directive.
"Once you have it, don't touch it again. Bloody leave it. Don't confuse our customers every time a new model comes out and something is completely different. Optimise it. Bring into the future. But don't change buttons from here to there, to there and here. At Volkswagen, we were always great for sitting in the car and you know where everything is immediately, intuitively," Schäfer said.
The all-new Volkswagen Tiguan will launch this September, with sales expected in early 2024. But you can still purchase the current-gen Tiguan at a starting price of $48,990 (pre Clean Car fee).